Onondaga County DA: 'There's a cancer' in NY Legislature

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Evoking a Watergate-era quote, a veteran prosecutor says "There's a cancer in the state Legislature."

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick made the comment Tuesday in Albany. He and the other 61 district attorneys statewide support a bill to give them more power to root out government corruption.

Fitzpatrick says proof of the cancer is that more than 30 state officials have been hit by scandal over the last seven years.

He says local prosecutors work closely with federal prosecutors who have handled most of the corruption cases. But Fitzpatrick says Albany corruption is a crime against New Yorkers and has cost millions of dollars.

The Republican was paraphrasing then-White House Counsel John Dean, who told President Richard Nixon in 1973 that there was a cancer on the presidency.